The News
The Foundation for Chiropractic Progress (F4CP) announced the next stage of its advertising campaign will be to promote the positive statements from Sarah Harding, Ms Fitness USA 2006, about the chiropractic profession.

The goal was that by September, readers of Newsweek, US News & World Report, Sports Illustrated, and USA Today—with a combined circulation of more than 12 million subscribers—will see at least one positive chiropractic advertisement and will be able to locate a DC with the Find a Doc listing included in the advertisements.

Your Views
Kellie J. Timberlake-Lancaster, DC, Bowie, Tex, said, “I believe that a national campaign is long overdue. It has always been my opinion that we as a profession have allowed others (that is, allopathic providers) to dictate the public perception of chiropractic. We have not taken a proactive approach to educate the public about what chiropractic is, what training we have, and what the advantages are to regular chiropractic care. I believe that if this campaign is done correctly, consistently, with credibility and factually, our profession will reap incredible rewards. The more the general public learns about who we really are and what we can do for them, the more people will seek out our services over traditional allopathic treatment. In a consumer-driven health care market, our profession may take the place of respect that we deserve, while providing a better quality of life for our patients.”

Matthew Roller, DC, Sandy, Utah, said, “I feel what they are doing for the profession can benefit the entire world. There are so many people we can help, but they don’t know we can help them. Chiropractic care can help the deaf hear, the lame walk, and the athlete perform at his or her peak potential. We have so much to offer by using a health care model that can help people without drugs and surgery, and without the high levels of physician-caused deaths.”

The News
The American Chiropractic Association (ACA) has joined a coalition that includes Blue Cross Blue Shield, American College of Physicians, and American Health Insurance Plans to lobby key members of the House and the Senate against provision HR 4157, the Health Information Technology Act introduced by Rep Nancy Johnson (R-CT), which would require all healthcare providers and payors, including DCs, to switch from the current ICD-9 code set to the ICD-10 code set by October 1, 2009. ICD-9 CM Codes (International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification Codes) classify illnesses, injuries, and patient-health care provider encounters for services. Insurers require that health care providers use these codes to define and describe the patients’ diagnoses.

Currently, the ICD-9 code set has 24,000 codes in a seven-digit series. The ICD-10 code set will have more than 200,000 codes in a nine-digit alpha-numeric series. Because of ICD-10’s greater complexity, ACA is concerned that DCs will have limited time—just 3 years—to prepare for full implementation of the new system. As most DCs practice in small firms, the cost associated with an expanded code set is very significant; DCs need time to prepare for the expense of the software, as well as any new hardware-upgrade requirements that it might entail.

Your Views
Thomas E. Hyde, DC, DACBSP, Miami, said, “Where are the old days when a patient entered the office, you could treat them, submit a bill to the insurance company, and receive payment? Those are gone. Managed care and other government interventions have continued to make it more and more difficult for a DC to make a living today. We now have the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, reduced abilities to treat workers’ compensation patients or none at all in some states, Medicare restrictions, very little reimbursement from health insurances, nonmanaged care, and now we will have to deal with yet another body of regulation—the Health IT Legislation.

Many DCs are having trouble making a living today. They have to hire people to help with all the paperwork and special handling of patient files that is necessary. These issues drive up the costs of running an office, but yet no provisions seem to make the wealthy insurance companies nor the legislators find ways to better compensate for our services. All these requirements make it difficult for a young practitioner to meet overhead and severely limits what the existing practitioner is able to generate, requiring more and more time and resources to furnish these government-mandated projects.”

Gerald A. Anzalone, DC, Peekskill, NY, said, “As a member of the Foundation for Chiropractic Education and Research and the American Public Health Association, I think it is unclear how this mandate would actually translate into improving the quality, cost-effectiveness, and delivery of health care. This bill also raises the question of whether we want the government to serve as the custodian of private medical records, and how medical privacy can be guaranteed."